Nintendo’s 8-bit console not only delivers feelings of nostalgia, it still offers up some of the greatest video games of all time. Sega Genesis and Sony’s Playstation are great consoles and come in a close second to the NES 8-bit in my opinion.

Nintendo 8-bit is a classic console with over 800 licensed video games released from 1985 to 1994. That’s an impressive amount of video games for the time. Of course, Playstation 2 pumped out over 3000. The amount of games isn’t what makes Nintendo 8-Bit the champion of consoles, however.

So why does Nintendo 8-bit win, even with all these amazing consoles and fantastic games that have been published over the past 3 decades? It’s all a matter of opinion, of course, and since it’s my opinion it might as well be fact, right? 😉 Just kidding… sort of.

What’s special about the Nintendo 8-bit for me is the timing. It was a revolutionary gaming console for the early 80’s (released in North America in ’85). Being a kid in the late 80’s, I was absolutely fascinated with Nintendo.

There were video games before that, but it was something new, something groundbreaking.

It wasn’t until 2nd grade, Christmas of 1990, that my family welcomed in our first Nintendo. (Prior to that we had an Atari hooked up to a little black and white television, which was cool with me.) “Enjoy each day” I remember my Grandmother telling me with concern. You see, 63 days prior to Christmas I had learned that we were going to be getting a Nintendo, and so the countdown began.

Nothing else seemed to be of any importance. I had to be reminded that there were other things in life besides Nintendo. I remember my schoolmates, who already had their Nintendo, thinking I was a bit odd for counting the days ’til Christmas in late October. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on NES was a hard game, but not as hard as Ghost ‘n Goblins.

There were a lot of hard games on the NES console. Retro Junkie put out a list of the Top 10 Hardest NES Games that I think was fairly accurate. You had to have skill in the 8-bit generation to say you were good at video games. It was actually a challenge. There were games that kids just could never beat, even with the Game Genie.

It’s fair to say that in contrast, video games are much easier nowadays. Back in 1990 it was something of a spectacular evening to rent a video game and stay up late on a Friday or Saturday night.

Kids back then, of course, actually played outside during the day, but the evening was free to chill and play some Nintendo… after you did your chores. Mario Bros 3 is probably my favorite game of all time.

There was a grocery store in our neighborhood that had a video rental section attached to it. (It doesn’t anymore, obviously, since video rental has become antiquated.) The video store actually had Mario 3 to rent, which was released in North America on February 12, 1990. Mario 3 was epic. It’s one of those events that happen rarely in history. The entire country was playing that game at the same time.

There are countless awesome games for NES, but Mario 3 is the game that really pushed the envelope, making it a win for Nintendo as the greatest video game console of all time. To this very day I adore the Nintendo 8-Bit console. Every now and again we’ll have a Nintendo party, stay up late, and give a hearty salute to the good ol’ days.